Welcome to Made at Milldown
Hand-made on the beautiful Jurassic Coastline
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Welcome to Made at Milldown

Made at Milldown started life as Made at Burngate Farm which is where we were living in 2015 when the idea to make candles formed. I was working for the NHS and married with two children while my husband ran our B&B but working within prison healthcare was having a detrimental effect on my mental health and I thought that candle making would be a fun hobby and a way to make a bit of extra money.

We started gently in 2016 with a few fairs and becoming part of the wonderful artisan community that makes up the Purbeck Artisan Yard but in September life changed forever when my husband was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer that had already spread. Throughout the rounds of chemo, procedures and two operations the small business continued to slowly grow, always supported by Titch, and in 2018 we moved to Milldown, an upgrade to a shed and a rebrand.

In July 2019 cancer won and Titch was taken away from us. Having a shed to escape to for the past two years has been life saving at times. The first few months adjusting to life as being the sole parent was difficult enough without then throwing in a global pandemic and working for very busy NHS department.

But we paddled hard and survived and now it's April 2021 and I have, rightly or wrongly, taken the plunge and left behind a safe monthly wage for the monthly, nerve wracking excitement and breath holding of hoping I sell enough to pay the bills, but the children need a less stressed me and I need my weekends back so let the journey commence ....

                                                    
P.S Why Made at Burngate/Milldown? Because my friend Laura and I couldn't come up with anything better depsite the help of gin.
                                                                                   
April 24, 2021 — Sophie Weld-Davies